Farmer Field School: Its participatory-experiential adult pedagogy, promoted by FAO.The farmers meet here before going to their farm, usually early in the morning, or sometimes late in the evening, to discuss about farming and other farm related matters. It emphasizes learning through experiments and observations. This is our group in Tumkur.
One of the FFS members volunteered to give 2 acres of land for SRI experimentation in paddy cultivation.This was necessary for the farmers to see and observe the result of both the method of paddy cultivation, SRI as well as the conservative method.
The volunteer (he can be seen in the last photograph) faced fierce opposition from his family members who stopped talking to him, until they saw the results. Later on they were so happy that they not only went on to advise other farmers to adopt this method but also adopted the SRI method for ragi cultivation.
Less water consumption, less number of seeds for sowing, and higher yield than the conservative method are some of the key observations.
Ready for transplant
These experiments were conducted at Kunigal, Tumkur under IDF-Sujeevan programme. Sri method of paddy cultivation in google/yahoo search will give you further details about such experiments conducted elsewhere in India. Shortly we will be experimenting with Sugarcane with our groups in Belgaum.